2008 US OPEN MEN’S & WOMEN’S SLOPESTYLE FINALS

Howling winds and bulletproof kickers proved no match for the world’s best riders as they battled it out in the 26th annual US Open Slopestyle finals at Stratton Mountain, Vermont.

The gauntlet consisted of back-to-back jibs at the top into a quadruple set of monster kickers. Speed was critical in the tight setup, giving riders little room for error if they wanted to maintain momentum through all four jumps.

The day began with men’s and women’s semis, where eight women and sixteen men would advance to the afternoon’s finals. The level in semi’s was insanely high with big name riders such as Torah Bright, Spencer O’Brien, Torstein Horgmo, Jussi Oksanen and Kevin Pearce all throwing down, but not making it to finals.

Standouts in the semi’s included Cheryl Maas’ backside 7 to backside 5 combos, Kjersti Buaas’ frontside 7s, Sina Candrian’s smooth frontside 7s, and Jamie Anderson’s all-around laid back style. On the men’s side Ian Thorley was unleashing backside 9s to big switch backside rodeos, Lonnie Kauk was sending them so far he nearly landed in the parking lot, Alessandro Boyens had some sort of weird backside 9 late cork, and Mason Aguirre had the frontside 9 truck driver. Daniel Ek was going for frontside 10s and Antti Autti threw a misto cab 5 rewind. However, the story of the day was Canada’s Charles Reid who started out in slopestyle as a pre-qualifier, won qualifiers, then managed to snag second behind Shaun White in this morning’s semi-finals. The highlight of Reid’s run was undoubtedly the 1080 he catapulted off the last kicker, landing deep in Lucifer’s icy pits of hell.

But enough with the semis, the gnar went richter in the best-of-three-run finals. On the women’s side, Jamie Anderson was stomping gap to boardslides at the top, with frontside 5 to cab 5 combo on the kickers. Jenny Jones, who came into slopestyle on top of the standings for the Burton Global Open Series, kept it clean and consistent all day; while Norway’s Kjersti Buaas scored top honors with a solid mix of floater spins and technical wizardry that included a frontside 3 to frontside 7, ending with a boned-out backside 180.

On the men’s side, all eyes were on Shaun White, who qualified first from the semi-finals. An interesting thing to note, Shaun arrived at Stratton late Thursday night, and decided at 1:00 am Friday that he might as well enter slopestyle. His last minute decision paid off big when he took first place on his first run, throwing a frontside 270 boardslide, a nosepress to backside 180 out and a Cab 900, backside 900 mute to a switch backside 900 mute ending with a frontside 1080 stalefish on the jump line. Tim Humphries landed in second with a run that included a backside 7, cab 5, frontside 7 and backside 7. Sir Charles Reid equally lit fires with a boardslide 270 out, cork backside 7 nose grab to frontside 7, landing in third.

Don’t forget to tune in to Go211.com for in-depth coverage, including live webcasts, of all the US Open events. NBC will also be broadcasting the US Open for the fifth consecutive year on Sunday, March 23 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. EST

Burton would like to thank Stratton Mountain Resort, Volvo, SoBe, Go211.com, Paul Mitchell, Virgin America, GORE-TEX®, Corona, Emergen-C, Shiseido, R.E.D., ANON, Analog and Gravis for their support of the US Open. For more information on the US Open, head to www.opensnowboarding.com

Slopestyle Final Results
Men
1. Shaun White, USA, 88.33 ($20,000)
2. Tim Humphreys, USA, 80.17 ($10,000)
3. Charles Reid, CAN, 74.67 ($5,000)
4. Ville Uotila, FIN, 73.50
5. Peetu Piiroinen, FIN, 71.83
6. Nate Sheehan, USA, 71.67
7. Sami Saarenpaa, FIN, 71.17
8. Sam Hulbert, USA, 69.83
9. Chas Guldemond, USA, 64.83
10. Risto Mattila, FIN, 64.00
11. Ian Thorley, USA, 57.67
12. Markku Koski, FIN, 53.83
13. Scotty Lago, USA, 48.50
14. Matts Kulisek, CAN, 39.83
15. Chris Soerman, SWE, 33.50
16. Stephan Maurer, SUI, 29.50

Women
1. Kjersti Oestgaard Buass, NOR, 73.17 ($20,000)
2. Jamie Anderson, USA, 67.33 ($10,000)
3. Jenny Jones, GBR, 61.83 ($5,000)
4. Sina Candrian, SUI, 53.33
5. Cheryl Maas, NED, 53.00
6. Faye Gulini, USA, 41.17
7. Katie Williams, USA, 37.50